Story TOpics

There’s a time and a place for everything, and Saturday’s lampooning of the great American tradition of gathering on the Mall for a transcendent cause was neither. The pep rally led by left-wing cheerleaders Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert proved once again that liberals don’t understand that the American majority has rejected the big-government philosophy.

Disguised as just good fun amid the backdrop of the nation’s capital, the real purpose of the Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive was to heap ridicule upon the millions of concerned Americans rising up to oppose the out-of-control liberalism of President Obama and his Democratic fellow travelers in Congress.

Saul Alinsky, the radical agitator and community organizer who inspired Mr. Obama’s career, wrote, “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” When the votes are counted tonight, Alinsky - wherever he is - will be disappointed. Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert - Comedy Central’s faux news anchors - exposed what’s already obvious: The contrarian left wing in American politics is always eager to mock the center-right stance of the majority, but that’s hardly a formula for electoral success. The rally rats who showed up Saturday were a motley collection of 20-somethings looking for a good time and aging space cadets of 1960s vintage - not exactly the stuff of a majority coalition.

Mr. Stewart claimed unconvincingly that the rally would be apolitical. His disciples didn’t need encouragement to play the part of the loopy left. They gathered to form a part Halloween party, part campaign convention with spectators dressed as bananas and wizards, hoisting placards disparaging Tea Partiers and promoting abortion, homosexuality, amnesty for illegal aliens and drug legalization. “I came to meet people,” Mark Feeney of Buffalo told Fox News. Toting a sign touting the benefits of marijuana, he explained, “We have to be smart, not stupid. If we legalized pot, we’ll create more revenue and jobs.”

The Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive stood in stark contrast to Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, which drew hundreds of thousands of sober-minded Americans legitimately afraid of the socialist direction of the country under Mr. Obama. Rather than ridicule opponents, Mr. Beck and his cohorts called upon the crowd to pray for the nation’s healing, restore traditional values and take responsibility for their lives.

The Mall is a monument to American virtue and the spirit of sacrifice for the greater good that have sustained the nation for 234 years. Its green expanse is lined with memorials and museums commemorating the great leaders and events crucial to shaping the Land of the Free. One end opens toward Arlington National Cemetery, where every day new heroes of the nation’s wars are interred with honor. By making a joke of this legacy at this location, Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert and their followers likewise denigrated the honor, virtue and self-sacrifice associated with the place. It’s no surprise their party faces humiliating defeat today.